Difference
by inuyashagirl22
Summary: It always was hard being the weakes of the Sinners. Told in Shaders POV eventual AxS and some CxR too rated for violence and language
1. Prologue

A/N: HIYA ALL! I'M HERE WITH A CHRNO CRUSADE STORY! MY FIRST ONE EVER OUTSIDE OF NARUTO, RUROUNI KENSHIN, SHAMAN KING, AND YUGIOH FICS! Hehehehehe I have a habit for liking secondary characters better than main ones and well, in Chrno Crusade, I like Shader a lot, she's my second favourite sinner other than Chrono. Tee hee hee…. Hope you enjoy the story!

Disclaimer: bah humbag….

Warnings of any kind: uhh… well, I watched the entire anime and only read one book of the manga so forgive me if I get some information wrong… cos I was told the manga gave more information about the sinners…

Any other warnings other than my pitiful excuses: this story is told in Shaders POV if u didn't already read that in the summary…

XxXx

Prologue: Weak

I was the smartest of all the sinners, the most cheerful. But I was also the weakest. I never really could get over the fact that I could never defend myself well enough without having lord Aion or somebody else cover my back. Sure, I was a demon and all, hell, I was even a cat demon but that still didn't boost my strength. My attacks could only paralyze and wound enemies but not kill efficiently like my friends

The only thing that I could do was tinker around in my lab and create new inventions that would either help us demons live longer or just help us with our day to day lives.

My name is Shader the Sinner, and this is my story.

XxXx

A/N: phooey, that was so short, it looked a little bit longer in my notebook… oh well, the first chapter is on it's way, I'm ¾ done and it should be up today.


	2. Chapter 1

A/N: wow! I wasn't prepared for the responses I would get for such a short prologue and to top it off, it was about a very minor character! Wowweeee! I'll be sure to post LOTS more fics about Shader since everyone just LLUVVSS her )

Disclaimer: aw stuff it, I dun wanna hear that stupid thing

Warnings: uhh… well… Aion sorta acts… ummm… non-evil is the best way I can put it…

Other warnings: nope nope and…. Uh… nope

XxXx

It was a normal day for me I guess, but I wouldn't really know because I was always shut up in my lab. I was currently working on an invention that would be the greatest success in my entire life.

"…der…" I ignored it and continued to work meticulously at the task at hand. My tail which was swaying to and fro behind my chair bristled when it swished past somebody's leg.

"SHADER!" I screeched and leaped up, getting myself stuck on the room. Stupid claws I scowled.

"Don't DO that lord Aion!" I hissed at the demon that stood below me. My tail was frigid in a straight line and the hairs were sticking out in all directions making it look like a mace with a white tip.

"Well then next time don't ignore me!" he shot back but was clearly amused to no end.

(A/N: prepare… for some… PRE-FLUFFINESS! MWAHAHAHA! Forgive me, I know Aion is OOC but I just wanna put this in) he stretched out his arms which told me to drop. I let go of the rafters and plummeted down to the ground and landed in his arms.

"You really should clean up this place so that I don't have to catch you every time you get stuck on the roof"

That was lord Aion for you, Evil, sarcastic, teasing and amazingly enough, caring. He is my last living friend other than Chrono who was living with humans.

"Fine fine, what do you need anyways?" I asked, sliding down and landing silently on the ground thanks to my 'cat' side of me.

"We're going to pay Chrono a visit" he smirked.

"Uwaaah! REALLY?!" I clapped my hands together happily and grinned. Believe it or not, Chrono was the second closest demon to me other than lord Aion.

"Yeah, now lets get a move on, I want to get there by midnight"

"We have plenty of time! It's only noon" I smiled and said in my usual sing-song voice. I didn't know whether I had gotten the time right but I didn't particularly care.

He looked at me exasperated, "This is why you should pay more attentions to your surroundings. It's not noon, it's 10:30 at NIGHT"

I blinked then regained my usual hyper-ness, "Well then let's get a move on!" I skipped out the door with lord Aion in tow.

I KNEW I wouldn't be able to fly that fast so I waited for lord Aion to change to his full demon form. I felt him come up behind me and lift me up bridal style before taking off.

"Hey lord Aion, guess what!" I grinned as we were flying towards the Magdalene order.

He didn't answer and I assumed he wasn't in the mood for guessing games so I continued on anyways.

"I have this new invention you see… and it's designed to well, to put it in simple terms, bring Demons back to life"

He looked at me curiously and I knew I had caught his attention.

"How is that possible?" he asked me.

"Well, you see" I began to say, "A demon needs Astral energy to survive right? So basically, my invention gathers enough up and stores it up while I prepare the body for input and when I release the Astral, it gives the brain a sort of jump start which gets the heart pumping and from there on, I just have to put them on ICU until they wake up, then it's like they never died at all, although they will still have their memories of how they died and they won't be able to use much of their demon powers for a while" I finished my explanation and looked at his facial features, I could tell that he was impressed.

"So who are you going to bring back to life by using your new invention?" he seemed to be full of questions today.

"Who else?" I answer with a question. I know he hates this but I do it anyways due to habit, "It's gonna be like old times"

He stayed silent but I could hear his thoughts clearly as if he wanted me to read them.

_Yeah sure, except they're going to be so furious that you didn't revive them earlier _he thought.

"Then we're going to hafta get lots of drinks so they'll be happy!" I automatically said. Once I realized my mistake, I clamped my hand over my mouth. I wasn't supposed to read lord Aion's thoughts. Mentally, I braced myself for the scolding that was supposed to follow.

"I'm not going to yell at you Shader, you can relax. You did something good so I'll relieve you of any punishment you may earn today"

I stay quiet. I blocked my thoughts from him for the rest of the ride. _Well, it was a good thing lord Aion didn't get mad at me _I thought to myself, suddenly, I got angry. _He never yelled at Rizelle or anyone else if they did something like this! Well, when they were alive anyways… I was the only one who always got yelled at._ I became so engrossed in my thoughts that I did not realize how much evil aura I was emitting due to my anger.

"Shader" Aion hissed, I looked at him "What the heck are you so mad about? You better calm down before somebody notices us"

I nodded silently and resumed my internal ranting err thoughts.

To be honest, I was actually jealous. I was jealous that I was always in the shadows, always ignored until I did something good which was rare. No one ever paid any attention to me so unconsciously, my personality started to mold into an outgoing sort of type, anything to be noticed. I got louder, more hyper and as I perceived it, more annoying. Now, it was hard to change since I was already like that.

A small nudging in my brain made me snap back to reality. Luckily, my mind barrier was still up, preventing anyone from reading my thoughts like Aion was currently trying to do. Obviously he was attempting to figure out why I was so mad but I had no clue why he even wanted to know since he never cared.

Using a little more energy than necessary, I pushed Aion out of my head. I caught a shocked glance that he directed at me before looking forwards again. He wasn't used to me blocking him. Actually, this was one of the first times I've done this. Partially because I didn't want him reading my thoughts right now and partially because I'm not very good at pushing out anyone who wanted to enter my mind so I use more effort than most demons. My ears flattened against my head in shame and I refused to talk to him for the rest of the trip.

A bunch of bright lights caught my attention. We were at the Magdalene order.

Apparently they were having some sort of celebration since they were all out in the courtyard where I could hear some music and laughter. Lanterns were hanging from wires that went from tree to tree, completely surrounding the space. Using my nocturnal vision, which was better than almost all demons, I looked at the people dancing, seeing if Chrono and his human…partner or friend or lover or whatever she was to him were dancing. Sure enough, I saw a small blob of purple amongst everyone else. I nearly laughed out loud when I saw him. He and Rosette were dancing… but trying to stomp the hell out of the other's toes in the process. Which ended up making them do some weird jiggle and made them dance faster and faster.

"Now we just have to get Chrono's attention" Aion said as he set me down on the ground once he landed in the middle of the forest nearby.

I wondered how we were going to do that. After about 10 seconds, I got a brilliant idea… okay, maybe it wasn't brilliant, but it would work.

"Umm… I could go give the guard a note and tell him to give it to Chrono. It would work because they never saw me before" I mumbled quietly.

"Hmm…good idea" Aion pulled out some paper and a pen which had materialized out of nowhere. How he did it, I'll never know.

"Here," he handed me the parchment that was rolled up.

I took it and disappeared into the darkness.

Finding the gate was easy enough since I could see thanks to my cat…abilities. Sure enough, there were 2 guards standing duty. I walked out of the forest and onto the road. I made as much noise as possible so they would know somebody was coming. Sure enough, they both grabbed their guns immediately and pointed it towards me.

"Who are you?!" they demanded.

I raised both my hands as a sign of peace, "I'm just here to deliver a message but since it's obvious you won't let me in, could you please give this to Chrono?" I handed them the note. They nodded at me but I could see the suspicion clearly in their eyes, "Thanks very much!" I grinned at them and skipped back into the woods.

_Piece of cake _I smiled to myself.

"I'm baaaack" I sang happily and jumped into the clearing where Aion was leaning against a tree.

"Did it work?" was the first words out of his mouth.

"Yep" I smiled broadly, "No trouble at all" I purred, proud of myself.

(switch out of Shaders POV into normal POV)

meanwhile back in the courtyard…

Chrono gulped and continued his waltz of death. Rosette had managed to stomp his toes once or twice but he was completely unsuccessful. Well, he could have stomped on hers like 20 times but he wasn't THAT mean.

"Chrono" he heard someone call him, he looked over by the gate and saw the guard Steven wave him over.

"I'll be right back" he smiled at Rosette before slipping his hand out of hers and running over.

"What is it?" he asked a relaxed expression on his face.

"I was given a note and was told to give it to you, a lady with cat ears gave it to me"

Chrono tensed. Cat ears? He only knew one person who had cat ears and that person hung out with Aion.

He grabbed the note and scanned over it quickly. A frown etching itself almost permanently on his face.

"Hey, is everything okay?" Steven asked him.

"I don't know…" Chrono mumbled and ran back to his friends.

"Rosette, we have to leave. NOW" the devil growled.

"What?! Why?! I'm eating! Can't this wait?!" she said through a mouthful of mashed potatoes.

"NO. WE. LEAVE. NOW" No one had ever seen Chrono scowl at Rosette before… well, there always was a first for everything.

Rosette, contemplating the mood in the air agreed and allowed herself to be dragged off by Chrono.

"Get your guns now" he hissed and led her to her room, "every single one, and all the bullets you can find"

"Mind explaining to me the situation?" she asked while loading up.

"Aion's somewhere in the forest"

"WHAT?!"

"Aion's somewhere in the forest. With Shader too"

"Who's Shader?"

"This insanely smart cat demon that has an amazingly happy personality. She also likes to drink"

"Oh…"

They both stayed silent for a while until Chrono broke the silence again.

"If the problem becomes too out of hand I want you to run and get reinforcements"

"What?! And leave you there to defend yourself?! No way! Not unless you transform that is…"

"NO. no using the watch, I've taken enough of your life already and I-"

"Well then too bad! I'm not leaving until you change to your full demon form!"

"Rosette! Don't be stubborn!"

"I'm not being stubborn!"

"Yes you are!"

"No I'm not! If you want me to leave, you're going to transform either way!"

"Rosette… please…" the blonde haired nun had never heard Chrono sound so scared before in her life. Not counting the time when she was on the brink of death but that was beside the point.

"Trust me please… I know what Aion can do… and I know Shader isn't that strong but she could probably snap your neck in half with her tail if she wanted to"

Rosette sighed, "Ok fine…"

The purple haired devil gave a weak smile, "Good, now let's go kick some butt"

Being the lazy people that they were… (okay, maybe Chrono isn't lazy but the method they took to get out of the building was lazy) they simply charged and jumped out the window.

Chrono landed on the lower roof and caught Rosette before jumping onto the other building, and the other, and the other, until they were on the edge of the forest. That was when Rosette decided she wasn't something you could just 'carry around'.

The two crept through the dark, avoiding making as much sound as possible.

Soon, they heard 2 voices talking. One was unmistakably Aion's while the other one was supposedly Shaders. Taking a deep breath they walked towards them.

Back to Shader's POV.

I heard breathing. They were here. I could hardly contain my excitement. A snap of a twig signaled they had walked into the clearing and as soon as I saw purple hair, I launched myself at Chrono.

Obviously the human, Rosette, thought I was attacking because she was about to fire but then froze and gave a weird look when she saw I was hugging him.

"WAAAAIII! IT'S BEEN SO LONG CHRONO!!!" I squealed, remembering to keep my voice to the minimum as to not be heard.

"Shader… can't… breathe… choking… me… lungs… collapsing…" he gasped for breath once I released him.

"Oops… heheheeh sorry" I smiled meekly and scratched the back of my head in embarrassment.

Rosette was standing there with an angry/cautious/jealous expression.

Well, my outburst didn't keep the tension away for long and soon, Chrono and Aion were having a glaring contest.

"What do you want Aion" he spat out.

"Nothing much really, I have an offer to make though…"

"And what makes you think that I would accept any offer of yours?!" Chrono moved protectively in front of Rosette.

I looked to both sides and realized that if I didn't move, I would be caught in the line of fire, and being smarter than that, I went to stand beside Aion.

"Just listen to what I have to say!" my white haired companion finally hissed after exchanging some rather not-so-nice comments with my old friend.

Chrono stood glaring at him but motioned for him to continue.

"I'm offering you the chance to come back and stay at Eden instead of this… place," for a lack of a better word, "and this is because I'm sure you've sensed the evil aura that's been hovering over this city for quite some time? Apparently some pursuers have come from hell and plan to kill off the rest of us Sinners since there are only 3 of us left. Not having an advantage in this situation, I want to keep our defenses as strong as possible and therefore require your assistance. You can bring your human friend along too if you want, we have enough rooms. And of course you can continue your 'good deeds' for the order during your stay"

Rosette seemed… confused. Torn would be a better word I decided. She was trying to decide whether or not she should believe Aion or just shoot him and tell him to go back to hell. Of course, if she did decide to shoot, it would be my duty to jump in the way of the bullet and I don't intend to leave here with any wounds whatsoever tonight.

Chrono certainly did not believe Aion. He growled at him, "so what? We can still have protection when we stay here"

"Ah yes, but do you think you're little human friends will last long against the demons? Let me remind you, the last time we tried to escape them, not even you walked out unharmed and you are probably 100 times more powerful than any person here. Not to mention they would all die and it would be your fault"

Chrono scowled even more and began to charge at Aion had his friend not held him back.

She gripped him by the shoulders and kept him in place, "Chrono! Calm down! You need to calm down if you want to think rationally"

Well at least someone here besides me had some common sense.

Had the situation been not so serious, I would have laughed because it was almost like old times, when Aion would tease Chrono so much that he would blow his top.

Much to my surprise, Chrono actually managed to shake Rosette off him and he reached into his coat and produced a sword/cross. The following action of his was simply natural and you could probably guess that he and Aion started dueling it out.

"Chrono STOP!" The blonde nun yelled, trying to get his attention.

I walked up from behind and put a hand on her should, scaring her. She looked at me with wide eyes, I shook my head, "Its not going to work, let them blow off some steam, if the problem escalates too much then we can step in"

She stood still for a while and then finally nodded. The battle wasn't really that bad, I mean, both of them weren't in demon form, and I hoped that they would stay that way.

They both slashed at each other with their own sword (where Aion had got his I have no idea, he was like a magician, making things pop out of nowhere) and a loud clang echoed throughout the forest. They both leaped back from the impact. That was when Aion began to change to his full demon form.

"Now would be a good time to stop them" I started running towards where I thought they would meet in one final clash. The two of them had already started charging at each other.

When they were about 4 meters away from each other, I stood in between them, shielding them from each other. My back was to Chrono but I felt Rosette's back to mine.

"Stop" I was surprised at how solid my voice sounded.

Aion's eyes widened for a fraction of a second and he managed to stop his hand from plunging into my chest by mere millimeters.

"Shader. GET. OUT. OF. THE. WAY!" he hissed, anger still flashing in his eyes.

"No, it won't help if you kill him"

"_Shader_" his voice was now a death warning.

"No."

Rosette, who had managed to get Chrono under control looked at us while rubbing the smaller demon's back.

Just as I blinked, I felt Aion's hand lift me up by the neck, it was so fast I didn't even have time to react.

I choked and struggled to breathe. It was like he cut off all the air to my lungs except for enough to keep me suffering.

I felt the blood drain from my head and began to feel dizzy. My tail had gone limp. It was around now that everything started registering in Aion's brain. He immediately dropped me and I flopped on to the ground, not caring for much grace at all.

His grip around my neck had left a mark and I was now rubbing it, it was really sore. I guess that proved he had an iron grip.

"I'll come back here tomorrow and you can tell me your answer then. Let's go Shader" he took off into the night.

I gave Chrono one last glance and smiled a sad smile. One that I rarely used. He nodded back at me and I changed to my full demon form and took flight, chasing after Aion.

It took me about a minute or two at full speed to catch up to him, then I started flying at a leisurely pace. I knew Aion was flying slower than usual just so that I could keep up.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled, looking down, not knowing what else to say.

He didn't reply and I winced. I really messed up this time.

"I didn't mean to bother you but it looked like you were about to kill Chrono and assuming that you needed him in your plans, I had to step in…" I trailed off and managed to spare one sheepish look in Aion's direction.

Once again, he stayed silent. _Whoo-boy… who knows how long he won't talk to me this time? _I sighed and flew on gloomily.

His voice startled me after a while, "Don't do that again"

Was he forgiving me? "Okay" I grinned up at him.

He looked at me, his face expressionless. Then he resumed flight.

The day passed by rather quickly and before I knew it, it was morning of the next day.

This time, we left a little earlier for the Magdalene order so I could fly by myself.

It was about 11:55 when we arrived and I climbed a tree out of sheer boredom.

Chrono and Rosette arrived about 6 minutes later.

"You're one minute laaate," I sang out and swung upside down from a high branch.

"We would've been early if not for that perverted old man" I heard Rosette mutter under her breath. She was dragging along a big suitcase. Judging from it's size, it was probably really heavy for a human to carry. I sighed, looks like I would be flying with extra weight. Chrono on the other hand, had a relatively smaller bag. Actually, it was a backpack.

Aion smiled for the first time since yesterday, "Well, looks like you'll be accompanying us on the trip back hm?"

Chrono glared at him, "Yes, now how exactly are we going to get there?"

"Flying of course" I looked at him like that was the dumbest question in the world.

"Then how am I supposed to fly?" he rephrased the question.

"With these" Aion threw two things at him.

Chrono caught them deftly with his hands. He looked down at them and gasped, "My….h-horns…"

"Yup" I grinned from my position on the tree. Unconsciously, I wondered if it looked like I was frowning since I was upside down.

"What are you waiting for? Put them on already and let's get a move on" Aion said impatiently. I resisted the urge to tell him that patience was a virtue.

About 2 minutes of screaming and marveling later, we had a full demon form Chrono standing in front of us.

"Let's gooooo!" I jumped down and spread my wings; I walked over to Rosette and took her baggage, "I'll take that"

She gave it to me reluctantly and we took flight.

As usual, Aion led the way followed by Chrono who was carrying Rosette and me at the back. It took about half an hour to get back to Eden and by that time, most of us were exhausted not counting Aion. I was tired because I wasn't used to carrying something so heavy—I wondered what she had in there—and Chrono was simply not used to flying after being stuck on the ground for a long time. Rosette's reason was obvious, she was a human and she required sleep. Most people would be asleep since it was 1 in the morning.

The rest of the night was simply a blur of memories for me, I was tired and the only thing I remember was showing Rosette and Chrono to their rooms, drinking a glass of warm milk and falling asleep on the couch.

Which was why I found it rather confusing when I woke up somewhere around 3 a.m in my bed with my PJ's on.

I shrugged after thinking about it for a moment, who cared anyways. I lay back down on my pillow and looked at the ceiling of my queen size bed. I closed my eyes and tried to drift back to sleep but for some reason, I couldn't. I sighed, it was no use now. Being as quiet as I could, I climbed out of bed and creped down the stairs, I walked down the second hallway and avoided the squeaky part in the floor near the washroom and finally made it to my lab.

It took me a while to unlock all the locks on the door. I have no idea why I was such a safety freak. Turning the lights on, I smiled to myself and stretched. It was so nice to be in the comfort of my lab. Oddly enough, the huge mounds of unfinished projects were more soothing than any cup of warm milk would ever be.

Walking over to my desk somewhere in the corner, I sat down and took out a pair of pliers and a screwdriver, I resumed working on my 'reviving' mechanism sine it wasn't completely done yet and I wanted to finish it as soon as possible.

I have no clue how long I worked, for all I know, it could have been 4 hours. My head started to droop and I found it harder and harder to keep awake.

A loud clang made me jump.

"Shader?" I looked behind me and saw Aion "What are you doing at 4 in the morning?" he hadn't changed from when we came back so I could only assume he was in his room reading another one of his ancient books. I simply couldn't imagine what kind of enjoyment he found in reading books about history. Books about the future and other imaginative stuff were MUCH more interesting.

"Wha? Oh, I'm just working on this" I slid the chair over so he could see the machine.

"What is it?"

"This is what I'm going to use to revive everyone! See? These tanks are for filling up with astral energy and then I push this lever to pump it out into the body while these things here gather more energy" I pointed to some round clear looking orbs.

He nodded indicating he understood.

I yawned again. "You really should go to bed you know" he said after a while.

"Hm? Oh yeah. I will as soon as I get this part done, I can't seem to get it to work" I frowned, clearly unhappy that I had no success.

Much to my surprise, he pulled up a chair and sat beside me, watching as I worked. As much as I tried, it was rather hard not to look at him for he was such a distraction. Every time I made a mistake I felt my cheeks burn in embarrassment. Why was it every time I tried to prove my worth that I would always blunder?

Eventually though, I fell asleep but before my head hit the table, I felt a pair of arms catch me. So that was why Aion stayed with me…

A/N: well?!?! how is it? I would very much like some feedback )


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